ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Library Information Sheet

Sources of Astronomical and Geophysical Slides, Photographs, Memorabilia, Videos etc.

The following is a selection of sources of photos and other material, mainly UK-based.

Libraries, Museums and other Astronomical Organisations

The Royal Astronomical Society holds a large collection of negatives and prints from which copies can be made to order at the normal rates for photographic work. For specialised purposes, such as publication in books and journals, photographs are also frequently supplied from material in the RAS Library and Archives, subject to the constraints of condition, copyright, etc.; see the separate information sheet Notes for Picture Researchers for the costs, reproduction fees and other conditions of this service (this information is also available on the Society’s web pages). The RAS currently has for sale a set of five colour posters of nebulae, price £10.00 including postage. It also has a CD of organ works by William Herschel, price £14.00 including postage.

Armagh College Hill, , , BT61 9DB Tel 028-3752-4725; Fax: 028-3752-6187; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.armagh-planetarium.co.uk. Sets of slides on astronomy and spaceflight subjects, videos, posters and postcards, charts, globes, gifts, T-shirts. Sources include NASA, Anglo Australian Telescope, and the UK Schmidt Telescope. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG; Web: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/photos.htm. Filmstrips and 35mm mounted colour slides comprising ancient illustrations covering astronomy, astrology, instruments, constellations, etc., eleventh to sixteenth centuries, various countries of origin, from manuscripts and early printed books in the Dept. of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts. Transparencies, prints, microfilms, digital images available to order. An iconographic index to the mediaeval MS illumination producing these images is available for consultation, Tel 01865 277214/277153; Email: [email protected]. Most of these are available for purchase to personal customers, or by mail order, at the Bodleian Library Shop. Federation of Astronomical Societies, Web: http://www.fedastro.org.uk. Contact Slide Librarian, Alan Drummond, 27 York Road, Crawley, West Sussex BN44 3LR; Tel: 01293-535027. 103 slides, taken by amateur astronomers. These have the great advantage of showing what can actually be seen or photographed with amateur equipment . Some of these are available as a set of 31, with teacher’s notes, for school astronomy projects or adult education classes. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London SE10 9NF; Tel 020 8312 6631/6704 (Picture Library), 020 8312 6600 (Picture Gallery); Fax: 020-8312 6533/6599; Email:[email protected]; Web: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/cmr/picture_library/pic_library_index.html (Picture Library); http://www.nmm.org.uk/system/index.html (Picture Gallery). The NMM administers the nearby Royal Observatory Greenwich, and includes one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of astronomical and navigational instruments. The collection includes oil paintings, prints, drawings, and historic photographs. The Picture Library serves “made-to-order” enquiries. Images can be purchased and prints or transparencies hired for reproduction purposes; charges comparable with a commercial picture library are made. The Picture Gallery sells “off-the-peg” prints of items in the collection. Natural History Museum, Picture Library, Cromwell Rd., South Kensington, London SW7 5BD. Tel: 020 7942 5401/5324; Fax: 020 7942 5443; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/piclib. Small reference collection of NASA transparencies of the planets, may be available for loan to publishers, etc. Photolabs, UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, Tel 0131-668-8100; FAX 0131 662 1668 OR 0131-668-8264; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.roe.ac.uk/atc/photolabs. High quality astronomical images principally from the UK Schmidt Telescope Unit in Australia, for research, scientific, teaching, p/r, media and illustrative purposes. Collection

1 included sites, telescopes and equipment plus ROE/AATB (David Malin) shared copyright images, plus historic photos of the ROE and images from its archives and early astronomical books. Some of the most popular images have been made available through the Science Photo Library (q.v.) who market reproduction rights and to whom the initial application should be made for images required for publication. Science & Society Picture Library, Web: http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/piclib/, has since 1998 represented the collections of the National Museum of Science and Industry, comprising the Science Museum, the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, and the National Railway Museum. It can be contacted at the Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DD; Tel: 020-7942 4400; Fax: 020 7942 4401: Email: [email protected]. Prints can be purchased, or transparencies, prints and digital images loaned for reproduction;substantial charges are made.

Commercial Picture Libraries

The following are commercial picture libraries supplying material for publication, broadcasting, etc. Charges are made for access and for supply of material.

Galaxy Picture Library Robin Scagell, 1 Milverton Drive, Ickenham, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB10 8PP Tel 01895 637463 ; Fax: 01895 623277; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.galaxypix.com. Astronomical photographs, astronomers, observatories, plus NASA space images. Night sky views and montaged composite images provided to customer’s requirements. Hulton|Archive, Unique House, 21-31 Woodfield Road, London W9 2BA; Tel: 020 7266 2662 (Sales), 020 7579 5777 (Research); Fax: 020 7266 3154, 020 7266 2414; E-Mail: hultonresearch@getty- images.com (Research), [email protected] (Sales); Web: http://search.hultongetty.com. Includes the former Space Frontiers picture library on spaceflight, space applications and astronomy Mary Evans Picture Library 59 Tranquil Vale, Blackheath, London SE3 0BS, Tel: 020 8318 0034; Fax: 020 8852 7211; Web: http://www.mepl.co.uk. General historical picture library including some material on the history of astronomy. Also good for depictions of futuristic Space Travel, Aliens etc which accompanied stories such as those of H G Wells and Jules Verne. Science Photo Library, 327-329 Harrow Road, London W9 3RB; Tel: 020 7432 1100; Fax: 020 7286 8668; Web: http://www. sciencephoto.com. Commercial photo agency with large collection on all aspects of astronomy and space, as well as other fields of science, technology, and medicine.

Retailers

The following sources are retailers supplying mainly material originated by others.

Earth and Sky, Web: http://www.earthandsky.co.uk. Contact Simon Batty and Christine Parker, West Barsham Road, East Barsham, North Norfolk NR21 OAR. Tel./Fax.: 01328 820083; Email: [email protected]. Supplies wide range of astronomical slides, charts, videos, observing aids and books; always willing to give advice and guidance. Jodrell Bank The Visitor Centre, Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories, Jodrell Bank, Lower Withington, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 9DL Tel: 01477 571339; Fax: 01477 571695; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/scicen/. Sells postcards and photographs, mainly from Armagh with some from Edinburgh. London Planetarium, Customer Services Centre, Madame Tussaud’s, Marylebone Rd., London NW1 5LR . Tel: 0870 400 3010; Web: http://www.london-planetarium.com. Posters, charts, books, mugs. Midland Counties Publications, 4 Watling Drive, Hinckley, Leics. LE10 3EY; Tel: 01455 254450; Fax: 01455 233737; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.ianallansuperstore.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi. Supplies videos. National Maritime Museum Romney Rd, Greenwich, London SE10 9NF, Tel: 020 8312 6600 (NMM), 020 8858 4422 (ROG); Web: http://www.nmm.org.uk/system/index.html. The Time and Tide Shops in the NMM and in the Royal Observatory Greenwich both sell various relevant material (the Picture Library prints referred to above, plus timepieces, globes, clothing, china, kitchen items, cards etc.). PCET Publishing (Pictorial Charts Education Trust) 27, Kirchen Rd., London W13 0UD Tel: 020-8567-9206; Fax: 020-8566-5120; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.pcet.co.uk. Produces a series of wall charts primarily intended for schools on the following subjects; The Solar System;The Earth; Exploring the Planets; The ; The ; Meteorites; The Night Sky; Eclipses; Life in Space.

2 REM (Rickitt Educational Media Ltd), Great Western House, Langport, Somerset TA10 9YU, Tel: 01458-254700; Fax: 01458-254701; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.r-e-m.co.uk. Range of slide sets and some computer software, intended for educational use, on astronomy and space. Royal Observatory Visitor Centre, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, Tel 0131-668-8404, Fax: 0131-668-8429; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.roe.ac.uk/vc/. Science gift shop.

Sources of Films, Videos, etc

British Universities Film and Video Council, 77 Wells Street, London W1T 3QJ. Tel: 020 7393 1500; Fax: 020 7393 1555; Web: http://www.bufvc.ac.uk. BUFVC maintain the Researcher’s Guide Online (RGO) database, covering film, TV, radio and related documentation collections in the UK; Tel: 020 7393 1506; Email: [email protected], and the HERMES database, covering titles of AV programmes produced by UK higher education institutions, programmes from a wide range of additional sources, plus the catalogues of distributors of AV programmes. This includes films, videos, DVDs, slides and tape-slide packages; Tel: 020 7393 1506; Email: [email protected]. BUFVC als o sell videotapes, CD-ROMs and videodiscs; Tel: 020 7393 1503; Email: [email protected]. The BUFVC also maintain the Moving Image Gateway portal to websites relating to moving images and sound, and their use for UK higher and further education.

Geophysical Material

Some of the sources listed, particularly the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum, include material on planetary science and the distinction between this and geophysics can be somewhat blurred. The Royal Astronomical Society’s library includes a number of early books covering the subjects that eventually became part of geophysics.

The British Geological Survey, Web: http://www.bgs.ac.uk, part of the National Environment Research Council, has a photograph collection and archive covering most aspects of Geophysics with special strength in seismology, and maintains the National Archive of Geological Photographs image database; photographs include geophysical instruments and scientists using them, maps and illustrations of the results obtained, and the dramatic effects of phenomena such as Earthquakes. A wide range of photographic and digital products can be purchased for private use or, subject to permission, for publication. The Survey has two main offices and in each case enquiries should be directed to the Chief Photographer. Shops situated in the main BGS offices carry a wide range of items including rock, fossil and mineral specimens, geological ornaments, natural jewellery, postcards, posters and educational toys and games.

BGS, Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG. Tel: 0115 936 3360 (Chief Photographer), 0115-936-3241 (shop). BGS, Murchison House, West Mains Rd., Edinburgh EH9 3LA. Tel: 0131 667 1000 (Chief Photographer), 0131- 667-1000 (shop). BGS London Information Office, Natural History Museum (Earth Galleries), Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DE. Shop only, Tel: 020-7589-4090.

The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) of the US National Oceanic and Atmo spheric Administration (NOAA; see below) is a US source of similar material.

North American Sources

The following US based organisations offer very extensive ranges of astronomical merchandise and publications in Astronomy; please remember, firstly, that North American videos need to be specifically ordered for the PAL system (rather than the native NVTSC), unless you have a modern multi standard player; secondly, that import duty may be payable on items other than books, and though the duty itself may be quite modest the Customs and GPO charges for clearance and collection of the money can inflate this to an extortionate amount. There are also a number of websites for NASA (q.v.) and the Hubble Space Telescope (q.v.)

Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 390 Ashton Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94112, USA; Tel: 001 415 337 1100; Fax: 001 415 337 5205; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.astrosociety.org, has a catalogue stuffed with books, slides, videos, models, posters, educational aids, computer programmes.....

3 National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) can supply a wide range of material including CD-ROMs, posters and slide sets with images in its subject area. For those who have WWW access they have a very exhaustive set of Web pages at http:// www.ngdc.noaa.gov/ngdc.html. Address: NOAA/NGDC Mail Code E/GC, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305-3328, USA; Tel: 001 303 497 6826; Fax: 001 303 497 6513; Email: [email protected]. Sky Publishing Corporation, 49 Bay State Road, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Tel: 001 617 864 7360; Fax: 001 617 864 6117; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://skyandtelescope.com/ , are publishers of the foremost popular astronomy magazine, Sky and Telescope, and offer another elaborate catalogue with more emphasis on books but also including globes, videos, slides and computer software .

NASA websites

NASA does not currently make copies of images directly available to the general public, but images may be downloaded from its websites. Many of these offer multiple formats for the images, including high- resolution versions suitable for printing. Publication-standard copies of NASA images may also be obtained by media representatives or NASA research partners by contacting the Public Affairs Office of the responsible NASA Center; they may also be purchased from certain commercial sources – those in the UK include the Science Photo Library (q.v.) and the Hulton | Archive (q.v.). “Off-the-peg” NASA images and products are available from local science centres and planetaria.

NASA Multimedia Gallery, http://www.nasa.gov/gallery/. Portal for NASA’s photo, video, audio and arts galleries of NASA audio-visual products, including NASA Image eXchange. It is not a unified searchable data base. NASA Image eXchange (NIX), http://nix.nasa.gov/, is the first step towards a comprehensive online collection of NASA images, and comprises a web-based search engine for simultaneously searching one or more of NASA’s online image and photo collections; additional collections are gradually being added to the scheme. NASA’s Planetary Photojournal, hosted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), is the website for the Planetary Image Archive (PIA) of planets, satellites and minor planets, http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/.

Other observatory and space agency websites

All these have images which may be downloaded from their websites in high-resolution versions suitable for printing.

Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) Astronomical Images, http://www.aao.gov.au/images. Wide-field astronomical photographs, mostly made by David Malin. Chandra X-Ray Observatory Photo Album, http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/. European Southern Observatory (ESO) Astronomical Images, http://www.eso.org/outreach/gallery/astro. Hubble Space Telescope Public Pictures, hosted by the Space Telescope Science Institute, http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Pictures.html. Pictures and other material can also be obtained from the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre, c/o Space Telescope-European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF), ESO,office 503, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching bei Munchen, Germany, Email: [email protected], Web: http://hubble.esa.int. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) Image Gallery, http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/.

Russian material

Sources potentially useful for material on collaborations between Russia and the USA include the Science Photo Library (q.v.) and the Hulton|Archive (q.v.), whose stock includes NASA pictures. Material from the USSR period can also be ordered from the Russian Information Agency–Novosti (RIA-Novosti), whose London office retains an archive of photographs from the Soviet/Russian space programme.

4 Russian Information Agency–Novosti (RIA-Novosti), Web: http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm (Russian HQ only). London office: 3 Rosary Gardens, London SW7 4NW; Tel: 020-7370-1873 (photo library); Fax: 020-7244-7875; Email: [email protected].

Space Pictures and Memorabilia

Space Associations. Agency for the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics, Moscow, operated by Nick Steggall, FRAS FBIS, Bird in Hand, Salters Lane, Trimdon Village, County Durham TS29 6JQ; Tel: 01429 880391; Fax: 01429 882010; Email: [email protected]. If your heart beats quicker at the thought of possessing samples of Russian space food, Shuttle tiles, and figurines of astronauts, not forgetting such routine items as postcards and stickers, his list is a ‘must’!

Posters of Earth from Space, etc

Map Marketing Ltd, 92-104 Carnwath Road, London SW6 3HW; Tel 08075-862-013; Fax: 020 7371 0473; Email: [email protected]; Web: http://www.mapmarketing.com. Sell a range of posters in various formats based on satellite imagery, offering images of the whole earth, Europe, Britain, and various more detailed areas. They are also available as jigsaw puzzles.

Comprehensive lists of sources

Astroweb, Web: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/fits/www/astronomy.html. A very comprehensive list of Web links to astronomy -related information, maintained by the AstroWeb Consortium, a collaboration of individuals at 7 institutions. Includes Pretty Pictures, a page of links to astronomical imagery, many of these being links to observatories. Federation of Astronomical Societies Handbook, published annually by the Federation of Astronomical Societies Web: http://www.fedastro.org.uk. and available from their Publications Secretary (currently Malcolm Jones, The Willows, Hawkes Lane, Bracon Ash, Norwich NR14 8EW, Tel: 01508-578392; Fax: 01508-570986; Email: [email protected]) A comprehensive list of sources, together with a great deal of other useful information.

Feedback on this information sheet is welcome. Please send to Peter Hingley, Librarian, [email protected], or Mary Chibnall, Assistant Librarian, [email protected].

20 August 2002

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